Buy the new ebook “Jonah: The Inside Story”

The book is finally out!

I am so happy to announce that the book is finally out. I’ve been working on it for a while now, and at last the book has seen light!

What is in this ebook?

(1) Meditations about Jonah: His personality, His actions, and His prayer.
(2) What early Church fathers’ have to say about him.
(3) Simple illustrations.

How is this book different than others?

I’m sure you’re thinking, “What?? Another book about Jonah??”. Well, to be honest yeah, it is another book about Jonah, but just like with any Christian book, there is always a repetition of titles, but the content usually differs drastically. How many wrote about “Love”, and how many others wrote about “Prayer”, but just like Gregory of Nyssa said, “we are the New Testament Church, we should be like bees. Although weak, they fly in gardens feeding on nectar to create honey. Same with us, we should fly in the gardens of spiritual edification and feed on its nectar full of wisdom to produce honey that brings the chiefest sweetness to all who taste it.” (Paraphrased)

In my earlier in my Prayer 101 post, I tried stressing the point that prayer was never about the beauty of the words nor the length of prayer. Prayer is really as simple as a hug to a father; you can not hug your father incorrectly. There is no right and wrong to it. Each of us must really work hard to resist the urge to complicate it.

It is really funny, when you hear about a new trend in prayer, or people coming up with new techniques for a prayer. However much thought was put into the crafting of these methods, it is just not right! Jesus deemphasized the importance of the length and eloquence of the words when He said, “they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7)

I ended the post with a small exercise of praying the Lord’s pray (Our Father) every morning and every evening. For today’s post I will try to add a small bit (actually a huge one) to the exercise. We’ll add repentance!

Ready for a new year??

Did you choose a motto for this year, or perhaps a habit you want to build? This year I want to focus on “PRAYER”.

If I want to build a real relationship with God, the best way to do so is to start speaking more with Him; He is actually standing there waiting for my prayer. He said so in the book of Revelation, “Behold,I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

If prayer will be my focus this year then I should start putting some thought about how to do it:

The joy of Christmas cannot be expressed, and the blessings of Christmas cannot be counted. Let’s go through another story from the Gospel of Matthew:

“And when they (the wise men, also called the Magi) had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11

I am trying to imagine the wise men during their long trip from the East to Jerusalem (some people say it took about 2 years), and at each stop they would rest their bodies, but their minds would not rest from thinking and imaging the glory of the baby king they were about to meet. All of a sudden they found the star stopping above a humble house.

Can you imagine the shock on their faces?

They walked for so long to give their gifts to the baby king, then they find that this king is staying in a very humble house, and His parents are regular people, wearing regular clothes, may be even less than regular.

This didn’t stop them!

The Bible says, they “fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him” (Matthew 2:11). Their eyes were opened to the reality of this baby in front of them; he’s not a mere baby born from a poor family, but the Father of all humankind.

This somehow relates to the post I wrote a couple of days ago; the chief priests and the scribes (who were of God’s chosen people) knew the prophecies, but did not believe that this baby is the fulfillment of the prophecies, while the wise men (who were gentiles) did. This is an implicit depiction of the New Testament!

If you were in the place of the wise men, would you have believed that this baby is God??

Can you imagine a person practically fulfilling God’s commandment in Matthew 19:21“If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor… and come, follow Me.”? Many people choose to follow St. Anthony’s footsteps, not wanting any of the world’s riches, and prefer to dedicate their life to God, living in communion with Him, through continuous prayer. In return, “God is not unjust to forget (their) work and labor of love which (they) have shown toward His name” (Hebrews 6:10), so He rewards them with some special gifts, either healing of the sick, visions, prophesying, or some other gift.

Yesterday, I met an 86 year old Coptic Orthodox monk, who has been living in St. Anthony‘s monastery by the Red Sea for more than 60 years. Apparently, just like St. Paul, he has been given the blessing to see both heaven and hades, and give us a brief account of what he saw.

Heaven

“In My Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2) was how he started his account; “Mansions don’t mean houses”, he said, “they are degrees or levels; they are all in the presence of God, and are all wearing white, but the brightness of their white clothes represents the labor and good deeds of each of the people during their life on earth. The degrees of white start from white, as the regular white we know on earth, to a degree of white that is so bright that it looks like a robe of light”. The monk then asked us what we thought the good deeds were, we guessed, but then he referred to the last verse of the first chapter of St. James epistle, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27). This verse simply summarizes the two kinds of deeds one must do on earth to be in a higher degree in heaven; the first is serving and giving to people who are in need represented by orphans and widows, and the second is laboring in our warfare against sin. We tried to get more details about what he saw, but he wouldn’t tell us, and would keep on saying, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Hades

We changed the topic asking him about hades, he said “I’ve never heard such moaning, or felt such misery; it is indescribable. Extremely large amounts of people in despair, regretting every moment they spent in life away from God.” The word that hit me was “Extremely large amounts of people” are in hades, this got me thinking of Jesus’ words, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (7:13-14) and “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24)

Conclusion

A person asked the monk that living in a manner that pleases God is not easy and fighting against sin is very difficult, the monk gave a shocking reply, “Entering Heaven is not easy!” Grace and deeds go hand in hand, it is a journey where God and man work together to reach there; the gates of heaven were opened by Jesus’ crucifixion, but through our deeds we earn our entry. Since we both know that we as humans are sinners, God gave us the gift of starting over through repentance and confession, so we can sing with Micah “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise” (Micah 7:8), yet we know we are sinners, and however much we repent “(we) acknowledge (our) transgressions, and (our) sin(s) (are) always before (us)“ (Psalm 51:3) that’s why we cry unto Him in all our prayers, “according to our mercy, O God, and not according to our sins.”

I pray we may all enter into Heaven, enjoy the everlasting presence of the Lord, and join and be one with all the saints who have loved and served the Lord since the beginning of time.

NOTE:Monks are usually very humble, practicing humility and meekness, so they would never reveal their gifts in public. In contrast to televangelists, gifted monks would cast out demons, or heal sick people in hidden church corners without audiences not to seek attention or honor and suffer vain-glory. In order to get such accounts from older monks, younger monks usually try tricking them to reveal the secrets which they hold, like the above mentioned account.

5 days ago God granted me a precious gift, baby “Nicole”, my first child. I never knew how it felt to be a father, until Nicole showed up. I never understood God’s feeling towards us, his children, until now.

A famous verse popped into my head, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3), and I thought I wanted to learn what God meant, practically not by reading a book. So here goes what I’ve learnt so far.

I can’t possibly count the number of times I was deceived into not believing God’s promises. Every time it happens I just hate myself. I hate myself for being so stupid to believe that all-loving, all-merciful God would just betray me.

What kills me the most is that I already took the decision to surrender my life to God, I made Him king over my entirety, so then what? why am I still doubting His wisdom and His omniscience. Or have not yet given everything to Him??

This last Sunday Orthodox Churches all around the world celebrated the Resurrection of Christ!

Christians during the 50 days after the feast of Ressurection used to greet each other with “Khristos Anesti” (Christ is Risen) and the reply would be “Alithos Anesti” (He is truly Risen). Orthodox Churches worldwide still use this same greeting until now. So, Khristos Anesti!

In order to talk about the Resurrection, I need to talk about Palm Sunday first, then God willing I’ll post about the Resurrection very soon.

Our father Pope Shenouda went to Heaven, but he left behind him spiritual treasures for our benefit. He wrote more than a hundred books and so many articles. So I thought in his memory I will post an article he wrote several years ago. For the arabic version click here.

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Orthodox Christians celebrate Palm Sunday today, when Christ was received in Jerusalem with olive branches and palm tree leaves.

And on this occasion we want to reflect on an important spiritual point about which to choose: Pain or Glory?

On that day Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and his fame as a teacher has astonished many people, as well as his miracles and healing of the sick, resuscitating the dead and casting out devils, doing what no one has done before. Moreover, being known as a huge public leader had gathered around him many hearts with love and admiration.

So he was received by the people of Jerusalem as the king, with palm tree leaves and olive branches, and the loud cheering, and they wanted to inaugurate Him as their king, in order to save them from the Roman rule, and maintain for them a powerful kingdom of prestige and power, and return to them the greatness of Solomon ..

But Jesus refused to be king, and rejected the earthly Kingdom, as He wanted to form a spiritual Kingdom where He would reign on the hearts, not an earthly kingdom of the throne and scepter, of soldiers and knights…

He knew that the Jews were thinking about the earthly secular world, in pursuit of power, fame and influence. So, He came to save them and save the world from this earthly, materialistic perspective. He did not come into the world to be the king of the Jews and bring to them the world, but on the contrary, to save them from its desires.

Rejecting the idea of being the earthly King, had made those Jews reject Him, and conspired to kill him. Thus, Christ rejected the glory, and preferred the road of pain.

He preferred to be persecuted by the Jews, than to be a king over them. He never wanted to be involved with the people in their wishes and desires. Indeed, what’s the benefit of a king to them, when they are far from God and taking only the manifestations of religion and leaving its soul, so God rebuked them, saying: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me” (Mathew15:8)

Jesus wanted to purify the people and sanctify them, not to rule over them, he wanted to free their hearts from sin, not to free them from the Romans who possessed them as a result of their sins.

But the Jews were far from that spiritual way of thinking, they did not think at all about their souls and their salvation, which was the thing that concerned Christ the most.

All their thoughts were limited to the earthly kingdom alone. So they were disappointed in Christ, who talked with them about spirituality and refused the earthly Kingdom. Thus they settled their minds to kill Him. And started the conspiracy about Him, on the same day that they chose Him as a king!!! Thus they rejected Him.

It’s not strange that He was rejected for it was said about Him that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11) “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John1: 5) … He Came to light the world, and men loved darkness rather than light… They Rejected Christ, and asked for Barabbas … Their hearts were darkened, and they did not understand where their well-being was… As they sought to kill Christ, they punished themselves not Him… And Christ walked in the way of Calvary, on the way of the cross…

With that, Christ has established an important principle, which is that pain is superior to the worldly glory, or that pain is the way to the real glory .. No glory without pain … Or, that the glory of man lies in pain.

That’s why Christians have always loved the passion of the Christ, and celebrated His pain … In every age they have a week called “Holy Week” or “Week of pain” … Not ashamed but proud of the sufferings of Christ. They believe that his pain for us is a sign of love, and a sign of giving, and a sign that He refused the transient glories of the world. However, that the name of glories is the wrong name..

The genius enjoyed the pain … The most brilliant thing in life is pain

Everyone who walks in the way of God must suffer for Him, and should find pleasure in pain… And all virtue without pain is a cheap virtue free of giving…

Therefore, every human being on the last day, will give an account of his work, and will be rewarded by the amount of his pain for the Lord. As the Book says: “each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor”(1Corinthians 3:8)… If that is so, we are entitled to ask:

What is the amount of your suffering for the Lord? What is the amount of your giving and your pain?

Apply this rule on all your deeds; If you found an obstacle in the way of virtue, give all your efforts to cross it. If you found pain in the path of goodness, endure it with joy and satisfaction. If you found a good deed that needs effort and fatigue, do not care about tiredness, and be with a strong heart…

Know that God, whom you love, can never forget the tiredness of love. Remember the stories of the holy martyrs who have suffered for the Lord, and were happy in their pain, and the people who were astonished by the strength of their endurance. No matter how much is your pain, it cannot be compared to their pain and sufferings. As well as the prophets and heroes of faith (Hebrews 11), all of them were exhausted because of their High goals, and God rewarded them for their pains, which were their way to glory.

Rest does not create heroes, neither does pleasure create saints.

And how correct were the wise words of the poet who said:

And if the souls are high, then the bodies are weary to reach this height

We in this life, must exert all our energies, and sacrifice all our comfort, for God and His kingdom, and for the ideals that we believe in, and putting before us the words of Scripture: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1Corinthians 15:58)

And the pains that we endure for God, we must bear with contentment and without grumbling because being discontent makes us lose the reward, which is the evidence that the inside of the heart is not responsive to external pain, and not submitting itself as a pleasing sacrifice to God. Our saintly fathers used to rejoice in pain. The disciples of Christ when they were whipped by the Jews, the book says about them: “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5: 41). History shows us that, in the first century, the prisons were full of praises and hymns and spiritual songs of the Christian people who were awaiting for their death in any moment.

The pain of the present age, cannot be measured with the glory which awaits the believer in eternity. Whoever contemplates in heaven and its glory, and in eternal bliss, and in the angels and saints, and what God has prepared for His saints in the other world, trivializes for him all the tiredness he endures for God’s sake. Trivializes for him all the waking and staying up in the night to pray, and the tiredness he bears when fasting and worshiping, and the effort he exerts to get away from a certain sin, or in order to get rid of a wrong habit.

Know that the holy pain is not a sign of weakness; it is an evidence of the strength of the heart from inside. It was never said that the martyrs were weak in their deaths and their sufferings, but they were strong in heart and in faith…

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Iwould love to thank my friend Tiya for the translation from Arabic to English.

News websites and newspapers are full of news about his life, his achievements, his flaws, what people loved about him and what they didn’t, it’s as if I’m reading a history book!

No one talked about his fiery spirit, the spirit that gave glory to its maker; It’s He “Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.” (104:4)

Can you believe that an 88-year-old person who suffers from lung and liver diseases, and goes through kidney dialysis 2-3 times a week would give a 2 weekly talks, would meet up with people in need and personally give them money or whatever they need, would dedicate time to listen to people’s questions and reply to them, would write and publish books (over 100 books), would travel all over the world to check on his flock as a true shepherd would do, and would travel to a quiet monastery weekly to get his personal time with God, to recharge, to be able to give with no limits? I’m 26 and I can’t!

Last year he came to visit our church, later I knew from a friend that he went through minor surgery that same day! But the love in him for Jesus and for us, his children, was more than his love for himself and his care for his health. (The source of this story is that my friend -who I mentioned earlier-‘s mom was the anesthetist in that operation)

Aside from his unconditional love, and his fiery spirit in ministry, the wisdom and power that flowed from his words were enough to illustrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Everybody who heard him knew he was different; just like his Master, “they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark 1:22)

Pope in Arabic is translated to “Baba”, which other than its ecclesiastical usage, is actually the Arabic informal word for “father”, just like you would say “Dad”, instead of “Father”. Everybody who knew him, knows he was a true “baba”; he was both, the very formal charismatic leader who would meet with world leaders and renown figures, and the very humble simple dad who would sit with his children in very informal gatherings telling stories and jokes.

I don’t want to write more, because I don’t feel I’m giving him what he deserves! He deserves much more than my simple words!

As Christians we don’t believe in death, we believe in the passing of the soul from this temporary earth to our permanent home in Heaven. And since we don’t believe in death, we believe that those who passed away and those who are on earth are one living family bind together. As I would ask a living friend to pray for me, I will ask the “living” Pope Shenouda to remember us in his prayers in front of God.

I’m sure a lot of us heard about about Deborah, or read her story in the book of Judges in the Old Testament. I pray that this blog post would give you more insight and a deeper look into this lovely character.

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. (Judges 4:4-5)

Although it would appear that the Bible in these two verses is introducing Deborah, the Bible is actually giving a beautiful detailed description of the New Testament Church. Continue reading To Bee or Not to Bee!

I wanted to share a love story from the bible that I really stand speechless every time I read:

Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter” … So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her … Now it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob … So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “…Was it not for Rachel that I served you? … And Laban said, “… Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.” Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. (Genesis 29:18-29).

I think the message behind this passage is not love, it was to show Jacob that deceiving others is not the way of life. Just like he deceived his father to get his blessings, he was deceived by his father-in-law. BUT, God’s words are never limited to one meaning! Continue reading Jacob loved Rachel

Guess who I’m talking about?

Yep, you got it, Jonah! :) I actually got the idea of the title from an article, you can read it here.

Jonah is a unique person, I posted about him twice; here and here. When I wrote about him earlier, I mainly focused on his anger, and how he wanted to end his life. This time I want to focus more on one verse of his beautiful prayer in the whale’s belly.

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. (Jonah 2:7)

Today I won’t actually post something I wrote, but a story I snipped out of an ancient book.

This story is from a book called the “Shepherd of Hermas“. It is a very old Christian book from the first or second century that people highly regarded. Some early Christians even included it in the scriptures, and bound it with the New Testament between the Book of Acts and the Pauline Epistles.

I know you may think why am I sharing about Christmas today, but actually the 7th of January is the Orthodox Christmas, so I’m not that late. :)

It’s awesome how you find spiritual meanings in bible stories. Those who read the Bible with their hearts try hard to learn something new from a simple passage, dig deeper, and search new meanings, because they are sure that God’s wisdom is far more than the simple meaning that jumps out of the passage first.

I usually post once a week, but after reading this article, I got so angry and felt I should do something about it.

The whole world knows Santa Claus as a symbol for Christmas, but only a few know the truth about him. Reading his biography, I fell in love with the true him, and saw him as a role model.

St. Nicholas was a true servant of God, he served in secret, as not to boast. He was also a true leader, who led by actions and not just words. And finally, a true teacher, which was apparent by his zeal towards the sound doctrine at the Council of Nicaea against Arius.

Do not miss the book!

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? …” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’” (Matthew 2:1-6)

Since we are in Christmas season, I thought to take a deeper look into the events of the nativity, and for the first time that I notice this paragraph. I usually read it and pass through it without noticing anything special, but for the first time I feel like something is not right here. My whole life I thought that the reason the Jews did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah was because they did not understand the prophecies, so they did not link what was happening around them with the scriptures, but apparently not.